Drain on battery

wwsmith111 · 09-11-2014, 03:00 PM

I know there are various things that are drawing current from the battery when not hooked to AC power. Can someone tell me what those are and how much current they are drawing? I just added a battery disconnect switch to the negative side of the battery with the AC power disconnected and was surprised at the bigger than expected spark I got when I reconnected the battery. I am pretty sure everything was off. I didn't think a few propane/smoke detectors would draw that much current. I did have the fridge still on but would expect it to switch to gas. Does the fridge draw battery current when not connected to AC power?

Grumpy · 09-11-2014, 03:27 PM

The fridge has a 12v control circuit. It won't run on gas or elec without 12v.

Camper_bob · 09-11-2014, 03:28 PM

My understanding is that the fridge uses propane for cooling, but all the electronics still run off 12 V. Other than that, it's the smoke detectors, CO detectors, radio, WH electronics, and that's all I can think of right now...

wwsmith111 · 09-11-2014, 04:12 PM

Thanks guys! This is good to know. I keep my TT plugged into AC power all the time and I guess I wasn't expecting all that power draw off the battery. I have two batteries in parallel and an invertor to run the television etc. when we are doing an overnight boondock on the way to somewhere. I guess I need to sort out the power so I can eliminate what I can when boondocking.

us71na · 09-11-2014, 04:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wwsmith111

I guess I need to sort out the power so I can eliminate what I can when boondocking.

Just remember that CO and propane can still leak when you are boodocking so don't disconnect those sensors.

wwsmith111 · 09-11-2014, 04:22 PM

Roger that!

Grumpy · 09-11-2014, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wwsmith111

. I keep my TT plugged into AC power all the time and I guess I wasn't expecting all that power draw off the battery.

If you were plugged into shore power when you reconnected the battery it was probably the converter and possibly the inverter "reconnecting" to the battery as well.

wwsmith111 · 09-11-2014, 04:34 PM

I had the AC power disconnected that is why I didn't expect a spark when I reconnected the battery. I was only disconnected for just a couple of minutes.

**Mustang65** · 09-11-2014, 05:22 PM

How are you connecting your inverter's 120VAC output to the TT? If you are just running your Tv off of the inverter using an extension cord, your OK. If you are somehow plugging it into your TT's shore power plug (to activate all your TT's 120VAC outlets) some how, you will need to rewire your TT's battery charge controller to its own circuit breaker, so that you can disable it when on inverter. That is what I did to my TT's charge controller. Otherwise, you will be powering the charge controller from the inverter and trying to charge your batteries.. while running off your batteries.

Good luck!!

Just my thoughts,
Don

wwsmith111 · 09-11-2014, 05:32 PM

I have a 50 amp service which is actually split twin 50s as you know. I have wired the inverter to one side with the television etc. and moved the converter over the the other side which is dead when I have the inverter on. As you pointed out, the converter was chasing it's own tail until I swapped it with something else on the breaker panel on the other side. I had read this previously on another thread. Thanks for pointing this out again. It always amazes me how something so simple can get so screwed up.

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